Tuesday 12 March 2013 09.53 EDT
First published on Tuesday 12 March 2013 09.53 EDT

Sir Paul McCartney would not approve. But for the string of clothing stalls to the rear of the Cheltenham parade ring it already promises to be a vintage year. Temperatures that have plunged as low as -11C thanks to the chill winds whipping across the course mean that Richard Leach of Beautiful Vintage Clothing, for one, was already celebrating a Festival windfall several hours before the first race was due to start.

Resplendent in a full-length coat as shivering punters eagerly tried on fox and racoon headgear at £49 a pop and considered fur gilets at £195, he reported that sales of £395 floor-length mink coats were going well. "We've been very busy, it's our best seller. Our head bands are doing well too." A few stalls down milliner Graham McCartney (presumably no relation) was also doing a roaring trade in fur hats but declared that he didn't speak to the press.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, the most active market among the punters streaming on to the 8.15am to Cheltenham Spa had been on whether there would be anything to see when they got off the train at the other end.

The usual giddy optimism ahead of the opening day of the Festival, fuelled by whiskey and Guinness despite the early hour, was tempered by news filtering through from the course of patches of frozen ground and flakes of snow falling on the famous turf.

Outside the windows, occasional snow flurries gently tumbled on to the picture-postcard vista and the happy babble of speculation and theorising took on a more tense air.

The morning papers in which passengers furiously studied the form were full of confident predictions from the clerk of the course, Simon Claisse, that freezing conditions would have no effect on the day's racing thanks to the 630 plastic sheets that covered an area the equivalent of 45 football pitches.

But the smartphones on which passengers were consulting Twitter and already placing their bets told a different story, with the odds on cancellation coming in to 2-1 at one point.

Having insisted the covers would do their job, only to admit that patches of ground had frozen overnight, cancellation would have been an embarrassment for Claisse and for Cheltenham racecourse's managing director, Ian Renton, the man overseeing his first Festival after taking over from Edward Gillespie after 32 years.

"Bloody hell. It's bloody cold." The exhortations of one Festival regular from central casting – a riot of tweed and hopeful expectation with the Racing Post under one arm and his hat in the other – as he stamped his feet and waited for the bus to ferry him from the station to the course was as succinct a summary as any of conditions colder than even seasoned veterans could remember. Others had endured painful journeys by road from Sussex or Kent.

It wasn't just the punters who struggled to reach the course due to inclement weather. Several jockeys, including Paddy Brennan and Tom Scudamore, who had been riding at snowbound Plumpton the previous day had to battle through the night to make it.

Brennan said getting away from the course had been a "challenge", while Scudamore wasn't able to leave Plumpton until 2am and sat on the M23 for most of the night before finally reaching his Exeter home at 5.45am. He was fortunate that former colleague Rodi Greene was doing the driving, allowing him to rest ahead of his three rides on the opening day – including a third place on 80-1 outsider His Excellency in the Arkle Trophy.

But by the time the crowds streamed off the train for the traditional crawl through the town centre and arrived at the famous course, news had come through that the only consequence of the unprecedented cold snap was that the first race had been put back by half an hour.

In the end Renton was relieved to report that conditions had improved "markedly" between 6am, when they had their first peek under the covers, and 10am when the course could be declared fit for the likes of Hurricane Fly, Simonsig and Rock On Ruby to do their stuff.

A cheer went up as the gates opened shortly after the inspection at 10.30am and it was swiftly decided that the extra half hour was a cause for celebration, allowing for a longer window in which to socialise and study the form at a course now bathed in glorious sunshine – even if it remained bitterly cold.

Glasses were swiftly raised to the 60 ground staff who had guaranteed the opening day of a Festival into which 12 months of hopes and dreams are increasingly distilled by owners, trainers and punters alike would go ahead.

Thermoses full of strong coffee and hip flasks full of stronger spirits were fuelling the tens of thousands streaming through the gates. The tweed jackets were of the heavily padded variety and the footwear sensibly stout – not everyone had got the memo, but Cheltenham Festival goers tend to dress for practicality rather than fashion.

Bill, the man in charge of the Goodward Organic Food stall just outside the Guinness Village, was bracing himself for a run on burgers and bacon rolls. "Sales go up in cold weather and down in hot weather," he said, treating the question with the disdain it probably deserved.

There were fewer punters hovering around the parade ring and thronging the outdoor bars than usual, but inside the Golden Miller Champagne bar the sub-zero temperatures didn't appear to be affecting sales of chilled bubbly.

"We've come down from Aberdeen, so this is warm for us," said Patrick Stephen, who was here for the week and among those paying tribute to the unique atmosphere of the Festival, whatever the weather.

And not for the first or last time, it was the bookies who had called it right – amid the blizzard of attempts to grab the attention and wallets of racegoers, Betfair's marketing department had come up trumps with the decision to hand out garish yellow scarves that were soon peppering the crowds teeming into the Best Mate enclosure at the centre of the course.